Four new buildings : architecture and imagery · ARCHITECTURE AND IMAGERY FOURNE W BUILDINGS Mostof the modern buildings we see around us use standardized windows, wall panels and

Four new buildings : architecture andFour new buildings : architecture andimageryimagery

Date

1959

Publisher

The Museum of Modern Art

Exhibition URL

www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2440

The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition history—

from our founding in 1929 to the present—is

available online. It includes exhibition catalogues,

primary documents, installation views, and an

index of participating artists.

© 2017 The Museum of Modern ArtMoMA

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ARCHITECTURE AND IMAGERYFOUR NEW BUILDINGS

Most of the modern buildings we see aroundus use standardized windows, wall panels andstructural frames. This repetition of identicalunits simplifies design and construction, andprovides basic rectangular shapes with whichthe architect can organize even the most complicated design. But standardization has oftenmeant that a building's form is determinedmore by the way it is built than by its function. Consequently buildings put up for quitedifferent purposes tend to look more and morealike.

Some architects believe that this uniformitytruthfully reflects decisive characteristics oftechnology in our time. Others, however, believe that just because technology (in itspresent state) has imposed such overridinguniformity, it is increasingly desirable that abuilding's shape express some particular aspect of its purpose. An apartment house, theybelieve, should not look like an office buildingand a church should not look like a gymnasium.

Architects convinced that such distinctionsare meaningful have sometimes dispensed altogether with standardized rectangular units.They have instead attempted to give theirbuildings a more individual character bychoosing sculptural shapes such as domes,faults, and massive columns or piers. Sometimes these shapes recall historic styles ;s°ttietimes they are derived from structuraltochniques recently developed by engineers.

The four buildings described here are theProduct of these influences. But they also go

beyond them in one particularly interestingrespect: they evoke images of natural orman-made objects.

To evoke such images was not necessarily thearchitects' intention, and indeed most architects would disclaim any deliberate intentionto do this at all. The forms of their buildingsderive first of all from considerations of theparticular structure to be used and the functional problems to be solved. But the fact remains that some forms are inherently richerin overtones —are more provocative of associations —than the purely geometric formsof abstract architectural composition. Theimages such forms evoke become part of abuilding's ultimate value whether or not thearchitect sought or even anticipated them.

Abandoning the repetitive rectilinear gridsystems of more conventional buildings, (andin particular the human scale imposed by thedimensions of standardized windows and wallpanels) the architects of these four buildingshave sought monumental scale and a varietyof memorable shapes. Allusions to non-architectural images —ranging from the meresthint to an explicit statement —are used to express emphatically some distinguishing aspectof the building's function or location. Although they may not constitute the beginning of a new movement in architecture, thefact that all four of them were designedwithin the last five years suggests that thisis a direction of increasing interest to manyarchitects. A.D., W.G.

1

model : view from harbor

NATIONAL OPERA HOUSESYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Jorn Utzon, ArchitectOve Arup, Engineer

This project by Jorn Utzon for a NationalOpera House in Sydney, Australia wasawarded first prize in an international competition, and construction drawings are nowbeing prepared. The building is to occupyBennelong Point, a promontory in Sydney'sharbor clearly visible from both land andwater.

The architect has converted this promontoryinto a gigantic masonry plateau ascending inbroad terraces and flights of steps. On theseterraces and straddling the steps, he hasplaced clusters of interlocking concrete shellvaults to house two separate auditoriums anda restaurant. Auditorium seats are concentricsemicircles of steps scooped out of the podium. Ceiling and wall panels under the concrete vaults can be opened during intermissions, so that the uninterrupted vault formscan frame views of the harbor. Workshops,rehearsal rooms, and other services are contained within the masonry podium, alongwith an entrance for automobiles.

By treating the entire surface of the podiumas a stepped circulation area, the architecthas eliminated altogether the need for separate emergency exits and has produced a kindof abstract landscape. The shell vaults, apartfrom their justification as masks for suchawkward service elements as stage houses,provide an extraordinarily festive, even lyric,image. In the words of the awarding jury"The white sail-like forms of the shell vaultsrelate as naturally to the harbor as the sailsof its yachts. . . . The dynamic form of thisvaulted shape contrasts with the buildingswhich form its background, and give a special significance to the project in the totallandscape of the harbor."

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NATIONAL OPERA HOUSESYDNEY, AUSTRALIAJorn Utzon, Architect

three views of model

NATIONAL OPERA HOUSESYDNEY, AUSTRALIAJorn Utzon, Architect

plan (right)

site plan

cross-section through main auditorium and entrance plaza and steps

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NOTRE DAME DE ROYANROYAN, FRANCE

Guillaume Gillet, Architect

Bernard Laffaille, Rene Sarger, Engineers

Guillaume Gillet's Church of Notre Dame de

Royan, now almost completed, includes a par

ish center, a presbytery, and a gymnasium

and playing field. A spacious court accom

modates open-air masses and is adjoined by

classrooms and the sacristy.

The nearly oval plan of the church is derived

from two interesting parabolas topped by a

doubly curved concrete "saddle" roof. Walls

are made of individual V-shaped piers, the

narrow spaces between them filled with glass.

Each pier is tapered at its base, resting on a

single point, and is buttressed by the roof of

the ambulatory. Galleries circling the building

above provide additional stabilization for thepiers.

The buttressed piers of Gothic architecture,

which much of this building suggests, were

joined at their summits in great ribbed vaults

evoking the image of trees in a forest. But

unlike its Gothic predecessors, the piers in

Gillet's church carry an unrelated roof form.

Its saddle shape does not grow out of the

vertical structure, but instead cuts the piers

at graduated lengths, like the pipes of an

organ, and unifies the entire nave. This effect

is perhaps at its strongest when the interior

is seen from the top of the flight of steps

linking the main entrance to the nave floor

some twelve feet below.

exterior view of north elevation

plan

8

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interior view from entrance steps (left)

NOTRE DAME DE ROYANROYAN, FRANCEGuillaume Gillet, Architect

exterior detail of piers

interior view from ambulatory with entrance steps in background

11

exterior view of entrance (south) elevation

east elevation

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHSTAMFORD, CONNECTICUT

Harrison and Abramovitz, ArchitectsSherwood, Mills and Smith, AssociatesFelix J. Samuely, EngineerEdwards and Hjorth, ConsultantsStained glass executed by Gabriel Loirefrom designs by the architect

Architect Wallace Harrison set out "to builda sanctuary for a Presbyterian church todaywhich might be the same light structure ofstone and glass achieved so marvelously inthe middle ages." At the same time he wishedto develop still further the medieval use ofstained glass by carrying it up into the roofof the building. To accomplish this he used astructural system of pre-cast concrete framesfilled with chunks of multi-colored glass. Themajor length of the nave is thus made intowindows carrying abstract patterns representing scenes of the Crucifixion along thenorth and of the Resurrection along the sunnier south wall. The designs were executed byGabriel Loire after sketches by the architect.The entrance to the building is at one sidethrough a low and dimly lighted narthex. Thenave and narthex itself rise from both sidesof this entrance, and together with thecanted planes and splayed shape of the navegive the church the appearance of a hugefish—an early Christian symbol equally apparent in the floor plan. Windowless exteriorwalls, and most of the roof, are covered withslate shingles in a pattern suggesting the

scales of a fish.

13

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHSTAMFORD, CONNECTICUTHarrison and Abramovitz, Architects

interior

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detail of pre-cast concrete frames and glass

14

model : view of exterior

TRANS-WORLD AIRLINES TERMINAL

IDLEWILD AIRPORT, NEW YORK

Eero Saarinen & Associates, Architects

Ammann & Whitney, Engineers

The soaring cantilevered roofs of Eero Saari-

nen's project for Trans-World Airlines' Ter

minal result from the architect's effort to

create a building "which would be distinctive

and memorable" and "in which the architec

ture itself would express the excitement of

travel."

He has used four interacting vaults of slightly

different shapes, supported on four Y-shaped

columns, to enclose a space 50 feet high and

315 feet long. Embarking passengers enter

this space under a marquee extended like a

visor from one of the vaults, and proceed

from the ticketing area into the main wait

ing room where tiered seats are ranged in an

amphitheatre. Elevated areas housing serv

ices, restaurants and stores are at each side,

connected by a bridge overlooking the main

room. The bridge, steps, services, seats and

all other details are "part of the same form-

world" as the cantilevered vaults and their

monumental supporting piers.

This unity of forms gives to the building an

evocative character independent of abstract

architectural composition. The flowing con

tours and merging shapes suggest not only

motion but a moving object, although the

architect apprehensively maintains that "any

resemblance to anything other than a piece

of architecture is purely in the eye of the

beholder, or in the editorializing of the 'trend-

maker'." The east and west vaults in par

ticular evoke the image of poised wings —an

effect appropriate enough to the building's

location and purpose.

17

entrance elevation

TRANS-WORLD AIRLINES TERMINALIDLEWILD AIRPORT, NEW YORKEero Saarinen & Associates, Architects

gallery floor plan

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main floor plan

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model : view of interior

TRANS-WORLD AIRLINES TERMINALIDLEWILD AIRPORT, NEW YORKEero Saarinen & Associates, Architects

working drawing of column

20

COVER: National Opera HouseSydney, AustraliaJorn Utzon, Architect

architect' s conceptual sketch